Mohammed Kudus scored his first goal in our colours to give us a hard-fought win in an entertaining game at Elland Road on Saturday afternoon.
The forward struck an excellent goal shortly before the hour mark to put us into a 2-1 lead against a Leeds United side who pegged us back through Noah Okafor after Mathys Tel had fired us ahead.
The hosts applied some late pressure but we held out for the win to remain unbeaten in seven matches in all competitions, inflicting Leeds’ first home defeat since September, 2024, and giving us a third consecutive win at Elland Road for the first time ever in the league. The victory also moved us up to second in the Premier League before the rest of the weekend’s matches as we head into the next international break.
There was plenty of action throughout the contest in west Yorkshire, with the home side enjoying a couple of early chances. After former Spur Joe Rodon had skewed wide with a volley, he then went close on seven minutes when Sean Longstaff delivered a free-kick from the left and Rodon hit the upright with a back-post header.
Joao Palhinha fired over from 20 yards after great build up play three minutes later and had a similar effort blocked before we took the lead in the 23rd minute. Rodrigo Bentancur touched the ball off to Kudus, he moved it on to Tel who advanced into the area down the right and hit a shot which flicked off Pascal Struijk and flew past Karl Darlow.
Both sides then had glorious chances to add to the scoresheet. The first fell to the hosts, Bentancur caught in possession inside our area but Dominic Calvert-Lewin was high and wide with his finish, before a breakaway at the other end saw Destiny Udogie set up Kudus, however he curled well wide from a good position.
It was an open game played at a good tempo and the visitors drew level on 34 minutes when Guglielmo Vicario saved Brenden Aaronson’s shot only for ball to fall perfectly for Okafor to roll home from close range. That lifted the home fans and we had to ride out a bit of a storm as the game got a bit feisty, although we did that well and almost took a lead into the interval when Tel crashed a header against the crossbar from Wilson Odobert’s cross in stoppage time.
We were indebted to Vicario for preventing us from going behind two minutes into the second half as he stuck out a leg to keep out Calvert-Lewin’s shot on the turn having been set up by Okafor, while Kudus struck a 25-yard free-kick straight at Darlow on 55 minutes. Just two minutes later though came the Ghanaian’s big moment – picking up the ball after Pedro Porro’s pass down the line hit Gabriel Gudmundsson and moving infield before striking a shot towards the near post, wrong-footing Darlow as the ball nestled in the bottom corner. He became the 179th different goalscorer for us in the Premier League and the first for us from Ghana.
Longstaff went close for Leeds in the 71st minute, hitting a shot-on-the-turn from the edge of the box which flew just past the post. The final quarter of the game saw us move into a more defensive formation, dropping deep and making it difficult for Leeds to get through. They did get in on one occasion late on, but again Vicario was there again to dent them. Darlow lofted a long ball forward, Calvert-Lewin flicked on to Joel Piroe and his shot was heading into the bottom corner before our Italian goalkeeper stuck out a hand to deny him, with Destiny Udogie clearing the loose ball. The home side threw in a couple more corners in stoppage time but we defended superbly to see out the game – becoming the only team in the Premier League this season yet to concede a goal in the final 15 minutes of a game. One note from the game saw Richarlison come on as a substitute to make the 250th Premier League appearance of his career, only the fifth Brazilian to reach that milestone.